Birth of A Warrior
by Delrth
Summary: After Sansa's 9th Namesday, she experiences an event that will cause her life to change. Instead of being some fragile girl, incapable of controlling her life, she will learn to fight and to survive. When King Robert comes to Winterfell to name Ned Stark his hand, Sansa is very hesitant, but is ready to jump into the politics of the South in order to protect her father.


294 AC (After Conquest)

It was the day after her 9th Namesday that she, and her older brother Robb, and her half-brother Jon were outside the walls of Winterfell. She had begged them mercilessly to take her out, she had been cooped up inside every single day, learning how to be a proper lady. She always had to make sure that she did what she was told, that she was the _perfect_ lady. Her father had held a nice feast to celebrate her namesday, and that meant tending to guests and being that _perfect_ lady. It was exhausting. She may have looked like a Tully but she was a Wolf, and wolves need air from time to time.

"Sansa, I told you to stay close" Robb calls to her. Robb and Jon felt that their little sister was always too high-strung and proper, but when she came to them, asking to join them on another one of their trips outside the walls of Winterfell, they struggled to say no. Robb loved his little sister and only wanted to see her happy, and Jon agreed.

They spent most of the morning outside, walking through the woods, attempting to hunt small prey, but Sansa scared most of them away. She didn't know much about hunting nor did she care very much. She felt so free and happy to be away from her lessons and that stuffy old Septa. She loved her lessons but like Arya, she was starting to itch for something more. She hadn't noticed that she wandered away. She was too busy dreaming of a Prince, riding up to Winterfell, asking her to be his bride, riding off with her to King's Landing, the center of all things exciting in Westeros.

The snapping of broken branches woke her from her daydream, and that's when she realized she walked away from Robb and Jon. She suddenly became incredibly aware of her surroundings.

"Robb?"

No Answer.

"Robb?" She calls louder.

Nothing still.

"Jon?" She started to panic. She hadn't been paying attention and now she was lost. She heard branches breaking, a shadow was approaching her. "Who's there?" A pause, and then the shadow stepped into the light.

"Robb told you to stay close."

" _Jon_." Sansa let out a sigh of relief. "You frightened me."

"Come on now, Robb is looking for you." Before she moves, she hears more branches breaking. Jon steps closer to her and holds up his bow. "Robb?" It's a couple moments later when she sees multiple shadows approaching the two of them. It wasn't Robb. "Sansa run!" Jon lowers his bow and grabs her arm, pulling her behind him. She prays to the Gods that he knows which way they're going because she doesn't, but it doesn't take long until he stops, and she runs into him. The shadows were surrounding them and getting closer. It was wildings. Jon lifts his bow again.

"We want no trouble, and we've got nothing on us." Jon yells out to them. They don't respond, they only get closer, there's five of them. They are outnumbered, and Jon only has his bow.

It feels as if it happens so quickly. One of them falls, dead, with an arrow in his back, _Robb_? Jon lets his arrow fly, hitting the woman closest to him, she falls, dropping her sword at Jon's feet. Sansa turns to see a man running at her, dagger in his hand, he too falls, arrow in his chest, and that's when she hits the ground. A woman with a bloody dagger pins her down, and before Sansa could do anything, a sword pierces the wilding's chest. She looks behind the woman, and sees Jon, pulling the blade out of the woman, pushing her body off Sansa. Robb helps Sansa to her feet and she looks around, all the wildings were dead, and they were safe.

"Are you alright, Sansa?" Robb asks, wiping away tears from her cheeks that she didn't realize were there. If he was mad at her for walking off, she couldn't tell. "Sansa?" Sansa lifts her hand from her side and notices the blood. She looks down and sees that she's bleeding.

"Robb –" Sansa begins to sob, scared for her life once more. She drops to her knees.

"Everything will be alright, little sister, I promise, we aren't too far from home." Robb lifts her up and starts running in the direction of Winterfell, with Jon next to him. Seeing him struggle, Jon offers his help.

"Here let me take her from here, run ahead and get the Maester." Robb falters, he knows he can't carry her all the way, so he hands Sansa to Jon, and sprints harder than ever. Jon is almost at the gates when he spots Winterfell guards running towards him. He hands his sister over to the guards, and they run off towards her rooms, where the Maester was probably already waiting. Knowing that he can't help anymore, he walks to his room, so he can grab a pair of clothes that weren't covered in his sister's blood.

Jon hadn't left his room. His fear for his sister's life took all the energy from him. He sat on the floor against his bed, waiting for somebody to come to him. Lord Stark, so he could yell at Jon, it was his fault that she was outside of Winterfell, after all. Maybe Lady Stark, so she too could yell at him, maybe even slap him. He had gotten away with only a few cuts, yet her daughter was dying, because of him. Maybe she would finally get her wish and he would leave Winterfell and never come back. He knew he was going to join the Night's Watch, but he didn't want to, not just yet. Although he suspected it would be one of them, it wasn't. It was little Arya. She walked in and sat down next to him, saying nothing.

It was a little after Arya had fallen asleep lying against him that Robb came into his room.

"The Maester says she will be fine." Jon says nothing, so Robb continues. "She'll have a nasty scar, but everything looks good." Robb sits down on the other side of Jon. "Mother is angry, but I think she's more worried about Sansa than anything. Father is a bit upset with us for not asking him first if she could come with but beyond that, they don't really blame us."

"I think they know we feel guilty enough."

"It's all my fault, I should've just told her no. None of this would've happened."

"Not to her, maybe, but we still probably would've been ambushed. Those wildings would've still been out there. If not her, it could've been one of us." Neither of them speaks. They sit in the cold silence until after the sun sets.

The silence is broken with a light knock on the door. After a moment, the door opens and Lord Stark walks in. He sees the boys and Arya sitting on the ground, and he sits on the bed. And after a moment, Jon speaks.

"I'm sorry, father." Ned reaches out to him and places a hand on top of his black hair.

"It's alright, Jon. I'm just glad that none of you died. Wildings are very dangerous, and I've told you boys, they've been getting more active. I just wish that you would've asked me first. I would've sent somebody with you. I know the both of you are used to going together, but it wasn't just the two of you, you had Sansa with you." Ned moves his hand to the auburn hair of his son, Robb. "I don't want either of you out there again for a while. Make sure you stay inside Winterfell. Consider it your punishment." Ned stands up and leaves, closing the door behind him.

Shortly after, Robb falls asleep, mirroring Arya and resting his head on Jon's other shoulder. Jon couldn't stop thinking of what had happened, of what he could've done to stop Sansa from getting hurt. He continues to run scenarios through his mind until he finally drifts off to sleep.

 _I don't own any characters, or most of this plot, I'm just playing around. I apologize for any misspellings or errors._


End file.
